9-year-old girl dies from crash injuries

A 9-year-old girl that was severely injured in a two-vehicle accident on Monday outside of Modesto has died.

Mariah Izzo of Escalon was transported to UC Davis Medical Center Monday afternoon by air ambulance after the car that she was riding in was rear-ended on rural McHenry Avenue by a vehicle that failed to yield for a red light near the Del Rio Country Club.

According to the California Highway Patrol, Izzo was riding in the rear center seat of a Toyota RAV4 sport-utility that was being driven by 43-year-old Debra Ellis – her aunt – just before 11 a.m. on Monday. The vehicle was stopped on McHenry waiting for the light at Stewart Road to change when a Ford Expedition being driven by 66-year-old Barbara Hicks of Escalon struck the back of the car at 35 miles per hour.

Everybody involved in the accident appeared to be wearing their seatbelts, according to Modesto CHP Public Information Officer Eric Parsons, and drugs and alcohol did not appear to play a part.

Ellis and an unidentified 10-year-old boy were taken via ambulance to a Modesto-area hospital where they were treated for minor injuries.

Izzo passed away Tuesday. Her Twitter feed included a comment from one man expressing his disbelief after learning of the accident and a video of her carving pumpkins in the backyard with her father was also linked to the page. A video that initially showed her in the UC Davis hospital room with head injuries has since been made private.

“Bless your heart sweet child” wrote another user.

A call to a phone number believed to be associated with the family was not returned.

In an interview that Izzo’s father Tony of Manteca conducted with the Modesto Bee, he talked about how her organs will go to benefit as many five people. As of Thursday afternoon she was still at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. She was formally pronounced dead at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

He talked about liking a photo that she had posted on her relatively new Twitter page that showed her sweeping her hair over her face like a moustache. And he talked about how Thursday would be one of the hardest days of his life.

“We’re still here for my daughter,” Izzo said, holding back tears. “But it will happen today.

“We’re going home without our daughter today.”

Mariah Izzo attended school at Van Allen Elementary in Escalon. Funeral arrangements are being made.